


Is Dani Cute?

by Sunfreckle



Category: TAZ Amnesty - Fandom, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (previously titled "Never any other way" but then I wanted to write more), Canon Compliant, Developing Relationship, F/F, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Friendship, Hurt/Comfort, please just let my girls have some cuddles
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-26
Updated: 2020-02-07
Packaged: 2020-07-10 00:24:06
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19896835
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sunfreckle/pseuds/Sunfreckle
Summary: Yes, yes she is. And so’s Aubrey. So here’s Aubrey and Dani’s first meeting, first kiss, post-war reunion, and happy ending from Dani’s pov. (Plus one hurt/comfort piece from Aubrey's pov, because it was Necessary.)Dani instinctually holds out her arms and Aubrey, with the same degree of care one might use to handle a baby, puts the giant rabbit into her arms. He’s heavy, warm and fluffy, and before Dani quite knows what she’s doing, she is cradling him against her chest.Dr. Harris Bonkers gives one experimental push with his hind legs, but then goes comfortably limp, burying his nose into the crook of her elbow.“Oh he likes you!” Aubrey says, her voice sunken to a conspicuous stage whisper. “He usually only does that when you read him a book.”





	1. I need you to see somethin’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aubrey and Dani's first meeting, at Amnesty Lodge.
> 
> Dani’s POV, takes place during episode 2.

The growling, spluttering noise of the truck pulling up outside is always comforting. It means Mama is home again, returned from running errands, or whatever she’s gone out to do to keep them all safe. Dani doesn’t look up from her newspaper, but she snuggles into her seat just a little more comfortably. She likes spending time in the lobby when she’s not outdoors. It’s cosy. Better than sitting alone in her room like she used to do when she just arrived here. But that is years ago now, she’s not like that anymore. She’s not even that person anymore.

One of the keys of the piano gives way under Moira’s feather duster and a single note rings out softly in the comfortable lack of real silence. Nouri and Rish are muttering pleasantly over the chess board and there are always the faint sounds of movement from the various people elsewhere in the building.

Smells, Dani has always thought, also somehow counteract complete silence. And the smell of sulphur from the hot springs always seems to find its way into this part of the building. It’s nice, a welcome reminder that this is home. Of a sort.

By now Mama’s voice is audible too. She’s talking to Jake from the sound of it, but there’s someone with her. Someone new. As the voices come closer, Dani sinks further into her chair, hiding behind her newspaper. Of course this place is still a hotel, and most of the human guests don’t stay long and are nice enough, but it still always feels like an intrusion to have them here. She does her best to neither look nor listen, but the article on butterfly migration that she was reading is not quite engaging enough to miss everything that is going on. Whoever it is that Mama has with her sounds young. Young and—

“Hey Dani, I need you to see somethin’.”

Dani forgets to even hesitate to lower her newspaper just because of sheer surprise. Mama _never_ actively encourages their mixing with her human guests. She doesn’t try to prevent them either, she’s always decidedly neutral on the matter, but she has never tried to actively introduce someone.

The girl standing next to Mama looks, well, different. Different from the people around here anyway, both the tourists and the people from the town. Her hair is short, shorn up on both sides, and with most of the curls on top dyed a bright red. Her jeans are full of rips, her denim jacket is full of studs, pins and patches and she’s wearing heavy boots that _would_ be practical if they had been laced correctly. And then there’s the rabbit. The girl has an enormous white rabbit draped around her shoulders.

Dani stares and from behind a few of the bright red curls two brown eyes meet hers, looking at her uncertainly from a kind, pale brown face.

Dani waits, silently, and to her confusion Mama walks over to the big hearth at the centre of the lobby and pulls away the metal fireguard that is usually placed in front of it.

“Alright, Aubrey,” she says. “Show us what you can do. And I mean the real stuff, not the flash paper stuff.”

Dani has no idea what Mama can possibly mean. Because what it _sounds_ like, can’t possibly be what she actually means. This girl – Aubrey, Mama said – isn’t Sylvan. She looks human through and through.

Aubrey herself doesn’t seem all too sure about any of this either. She glances from Mama to the fireplace and back again, shuffling her feet. Then, almost reluctantly, she clears her throat and extends a gloved hand. There’s a small flash and a flame flutters out of Aubrey’s hands into the hearth. It hits the logs stacked in the centre of it, but dies out immediately, leaving nothing but the distinct smell of burning paper.

That was definitely some sort of trick. Dani opens her mouth, but Mama is shaking her head.

“No…” she sighs. “Aubrey?”

There is something almost caught about the way Aubrey glances back at her. “Yes?”

“Not- not the David Copperfield shit. I’m talkin’ about the—”

Aubrey’s shoulders square in indignation. “Ew, gross!”

“Okay, not the—"

“You go to Copperfield?!” Her eyebrows have frowned into a nearly comical expression of distaste and she’s reaching up with one hand to hold her rabbit, as if _he_ also needs consolation for this affront.

“No,” Mama says, and Dani can tell that she’s struggling for patience. “It’s just that it was the first thing that popped in mind, I’m talkin’… Aubrey? The real stuff.”

As quickly as it came the indignant energy dies down again. “Okay, um…” Aubrey bites at her lip. “Real... magic? Okay.”

Dani watches wide-eyed, genuinely forgetting to blink, as those words come out of the girl’s mouth. _Real magic_. But that can’t possibly— Aubrey has started to sway on her feet a little. She seems to be breathing deeper and deeper, as if she’s trying to concentrate on the rhythm of it. And then, slowly, she extends two hands towards the hearth.

The next few moments seem to be compressed into one single beat of time. Because one moment Dani sees two brown eyes nearly dart in her direction and the next there is a sudden blast of honest-to-god fire lighting up the whole hearth. Dani sits up with a start and as the logs stacked in the hearth catch fire she gapes at the cheerfully blazing hearth. Her heart is _racing_. She hasn’t seen anything even remotely like that since she left home.

“So,” Mama speaks up over the crackling of the flames. “So Dani, what do you think, is this gonna—”

“Holy shit!” Aubrey is staring at the fire as if she is no less surprised than Dani.

“Yeah,” Mama hums and Dani has just enough presence of mind to look at her when she turns in her direction again. “Dani, is this what I think it is?”

She opens her mouth, still not entirely sure if she’s got command of her voice yet, but Aubrey suddenly spins round and splutters: “Did you do that?”

“No, Aubrey,” Mama says seriously. “You did that.”

“Holy shit!”

“Dani,” Mama tries again, with admirable perseverance. “What do you think? Is this what I think it is?”

Aubrey’s rabbit is squirming on her shoulders, unhappy with all the sudden movements, and Aubrey expertly lifts him down. “Did you see that?!” she gawks and she genuinely seems to be addressing him as much as anyone else.

“Yeah.” Mama’s voice is measured, but she’s clearly still waiting for an answer.

“Holy _shit!_ ” Aubrey laughs in utter disbelief and honestly, Dani has half a mind to follow her example.

She swallows. “Yeah it, uh, it sure seems that way.”

Mama nods and resolutely turns around, marching back to the front door of the lodge. By now everyone is staring at Aubrey and as the heavy sounds of Mama bolting the door reach them, Dani meets her gaze. She looks nervous, but Dani is too shocked to give her so much as a smile. She did _magic_. Actual magic. Like the arcane scholars do on Sylvane. Humans don’t _do_ magic.

Mama returns with her usual calm, practical demeanour fully restored. She gives a quick glance through the lobby and Dani knows for certain she made eye contact with the others just like she did with her. A single, reassuring look of quiet understanding.

“Alright, Aubrey Little,” she says. “What do you wanna know?”

So she doesn’t know. She really doesn’t know. Dani glances around, but the others are all staring with the same kind of uncertainty.

“Um. So.” Aubrey hugs her rabbit, her lips trembling slightly. “So. I-I-I can magic? Magic is real?

How can she _possibly_ not know? She must be a Sylph herself. Or…can humans and Sylphs have children? Dani doesn’t remember ever hearing of such a thing, but…maybe? Her mind is suddenly flooded with questions, finally catching up to what she has just seen, but Mama is talking. In the same down-to-earth way that Dani is used to hearing from her when she teaches _her_ about the human world.

“Yeah, Aubrey, what you did up there tonight was real, actual magic. So I guess that’s the first big thing: magic is real. Because there’s a place that magic comes from. There’s— I’m gonna try to take this slow so that your mind doesn’t literally dissolve, but—there’s another world, one that is connected to our own. And that connection, it’s popped up in so many places around the world throughout time, and right now it’s here in Kepler. And this other world, Aubrey, it’s an incredible place and a dangerous place, and us humans have been crossin’ over into it for, well, as long as we’ve been around, I guess, and we’ve been bringin’ back stories and folktales, which, surprise! They’re mostly true. But—but that connection, Aubrey, it ain’t a one-way thing. They’ve been crossin’ over too.”

Mama looks at her, her and the others, and Dani gives her a worried glance. She knows that Mama doesn’t trust lightly, and there’s something about Aubrey that is oddly…familiar. But still. Mama nods though, curtly but encouragingly, so Dani slowly gets to her feet. From the corner of her eye she can see Moira do the same over by the piano and just as she takes off her ring, she sees the familiar glimmer of spectral light as Moira takes off her necklace. Dani can feel the change wash over her own body, like taking off a treasured jacket you didn’t realise has grown a bit too tight until you took it off. The change is only slight for her. Not like Rish and Nouri, who are towering over their chairs now, or Moira whose hand has slipped into the piano when she tried to lean on it without paying proper attention. But she can feel the sharpness of her teeth that she’s now almost not used to anymore and Dani feels odd, having not just Mama but Aubrey look at her.

Come to think of it, Aubrey is just looking. Not gasping or screaming, or even moving. She just looks, and then when she finally opens her mouth, her voice comes out _far_ calmer than Dani was expecting.

“Oh, okay.”

Mama tilts her head to catch Aubrey’s eye. “You okay?” she asks. “You all right? I know this is a lot.”

Aubrey’s eyes flit between Mama and Moira, to the werewolves and quickly past Dani, before she looks back at Mama again. “Yeah, no, I’ve watched movies and TV shows before, so this actually isn’t as surprising as you might think.

For some reason Dani feels like the rabbit is actually more impressed by all of this than Aubrey. Stupid as that sounds.

Mama lets out a surprised, faintly incredulous laugh. “Most people don’t take this as well,” she says. “So I’m glad that you are, listen—”

“Well, it’s one of those things where I’ve always, you know, no matter how sceptical you are about, like, sci-fi and fantasy stuff. There’s also always a part of your mind that’s like ‘but maaaybe,’ and so, this is one of those things where it’s like yeah, okay. Yeah, sure. Sure sure sure.”

Dani slips her ring back on, gingerly reaching down to pick up her newspaper, while Mama looks at Aubrey with an expression that is actually faintly impressed under all the amusement.

“So, that’s the truth of the matter. Monsters are real. But as is the case with so many of life’s profound curiosities, well, there’s a lot more to it than just that.”

As the others also slip back into their disguises and Mama talks, Dani wonders if she should leave. Maybe persuade the others to come with her. It looks like Mama is set on giving Aubrey the whole briefing in one go and she does seem to be taking it remarkably well. But just when Dani has started to gather her things she hears Mama say:

“—some stuff I’m gonna have to show you. No use talking’ about what can’t be put into words. We can go right away, if you’re up for it.”

Aubrey nods, it almost seems more of a reflex than anything else. “Yeah, I- sure!” She glances around and then at the rabbit in her arms. “Where are we going?”

“Into the woods. Not too crazy a walk.” Mama nods towards the floor. “You might want to lace your boots, though.”

“They’re not meant to- you know what, sure,” Aubrey halts her protests. By this point she looks less nervous and more harried. Like she’d rather keep moving than stop to think about any of this.

“I’ll fetch us a light,” Mama hums and disappears down the hallway.

Aubrey stays behind, watching her go for a second, before swaying her weight from foot to foot and fidgeting on her spot. Dani tries to too look at her too obviously. That’s what all the others seem to be doing as well. All hesitant as to whether they should stay or go or try to make conversation.

With almost the same kind of hesitance Aubrey spends a moment or two fussing with her rabbit, before suddenly crossing the room. Before Dani can react she already right in front of her and she moves as if she’s going to hold out her hand.

“Hi,” she says, with a rather abrupt politeness. “Um-” Her outstretched hand flies up in a wave to the whole room. “Hi everyone, I’m Aubrey.”

There is a polite, but very soft murmur of greeting. Dani feels a jolt of sympathy as the brown eyes meet hers again and she smiles. “Nice to meet you, Aubrey. I’m Dani.”

A grateful smile flashes on Aubrey’s face. “Hi! Dani— Um.” She tucks her arm back around her rabbit, so she’s no longer holding him with only one, and lifts him up a bit for Dani to see.

His eyes are red, but there’s nothing nervous or twitchy about them. Dani doesn’t think she has ever seen a rabbit more happy to be draped in someone’s arms.

Aubrey lifts him up a little higher. “This is Dr. Harris Bonkers, PhD,” she explains, without a shred of irony in her voice. “He’s my— Well I guess he’s my familiar now? Since I can do real magic and all. But, just because it might be dangerous, could you maybe look after him for me? Just until I come back.”

Dani blinks. “…Dr. Harris Bonkers.”

“PhD.”

“Right.” Dani looks from the undisturbed face of the rabbit into Aubrey’s. She looks more serious that she has seen her look since she came in here. Clearly, this is a big deal. “Of course.” She smiles. “No problem.”

“Thank you.” Once again Aubrey looks relieved for a flash of a second, and then she turns her attention to the rabbit again. “This is Dani,” she says deliberately. “Be a good guest, okay?”

Dani instinctually holds out her arms and Aubrey, with the same degree of care one might use to handle a baby, puts the giant rabbit into her arms. He’s heavy, warm and fluffy, and before Dani quite knows what she’s doing, she is cradling him against her chest. Dr. Harris Bonkers gives one experimental push with his hind legs, but then goes comfortably limp, burying his nose into the crook of her elbow.

“Oh he _likes_ you,” Aubrey says, her voice sunken to a conspicuous stage whisper. “He usually only does that when you read him a book.”

Once again there is something so familiar and almost easy about her that Dani’s smile is genuine and involuntary. “Good to know,” she says laughingly. There’s a short moment of uncertain silence. This is the oddest first meeting she has ever had “What’s his degree in?”

“Philosophy,” she replies confidently.

Before Dani can think of any kind of answer to that, Mama appears with one of her lanterns. She looks between the two of them with a raised eyebrow so slight that Dani is certain only she notices it.

“I’m rabbit-sitting,” she explains, not quite sure why she feels like she’s been caught doing something secretive.

Mama nods without missing a beat. “Does that mean you’re ready to head out, Aubrey?”

“Yes!” Aubrey snaps to attention. “Heading out, forest, not putting things in words. Ready.”

“Good.” Mama moves towards the entrance at the back, towards the hot springs. “We won’t be long.”

“There’s food—” Aubrey turns around while following Mama, walking backwards to look at Dani again. “—food in my backpack. For Dr. Bonkers. It’s still in the truck? I think?”

“Jake will have brought that inside by now,” Mama says, gesturing for Aubrey to move along.

“I’ll find it,” Dani assures her. “I’ll make sure he gets fed.”

Just before Aubrey swivels back around again mid-step she flashes her a broad, genuinely thankful smile. It’s so warm Dani can feel it in her chest.

In her arms, Dr. Harris Bonkers opens one pink eye. And then contently closes it again.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Might as well stop kidding myself: I'm gonna be writing a lot more about these two <3


	2. I need you to see somethin’

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Some hurt/comfort taking place between episode 28 and 30, Aubrey's POV.
> 
> Low on spoilers but with a warning for grief and symptoms of depression with the focus firmly on comfort and support.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (This chapter used to be a one shot previously uploded on it's own.)

Aubrey waits, with something at least resembling patience, for the piano music to start drifting down the hallway.

Duck has tried to explain to Moira that she can plug headphones into the keyboard, but she can’t stand them and never does. She already misses her grand piano too much. Anyway, she’s clearly busy practicing now and Aubrey has been restlessly watching Leo teach Jake how to drive in the parking lot for half an hour now. So the coast is clear.

She slips out of the apartment and into the one next door. Genuinely unnoticed this time around, at least judging from the lack of sudden congratulations from Minerva on her “attempting to hone her stealth abilities”.

Leo’s place is more cluttered than Duck’s, but it has an extra room for Moira to stay in. She likes her space, even though she doesn’t exactly sleep as such. Jake has an air mattress on Leo’s floor, which only leaves the living room.

Dani doesn’t get up when Aubrey enters, but the tangle of blankets on the sofa does stir. Aubrey can just see her blonde head turning in her direction.

Aubrey hesitates on the other side of the room, swaying from foot to foot.

“Hi. I’m not here to talk, cause you said last time you didn’t want to, so I won’t, but can I stay? For a while maybe?”

A fold of the knitted blanket Barclay managed to rescue from Amnesty Lodge falls away and reveals a faint smile on Dani’s pale face. Aubrey can practically feel the crackle of fire snap in her heart. That is the best thing she has seen all month.

“It’s okay, Aubrey.”

Dani has been bathing yesterday, but she doesn’t sound like it at all. She sounds so drained.

Aubrey jitters across the room, faltering a moment longer before sitting down on one end of the sofa. Because Aubrey knows about grief, and guilt, but she also knows that doesn’t mean she’s able to help. She wishes it did.

Dani sits up to give her room to sit comfortably though, and then, to a chorus of crackling sparks in Aubrey’s mind, she slumps sideways again. Against Aubrey’s shoulder.

It’s not like this hasn’t happened before. Aubrey has had plenty of time to get used to the feeling of Dani’s shoulder pressing against hers when they’re sitting in the lobby of the lodge, or her fingers brushing against her while they’re strolling through the forest. But this feels different. Dani turns her face, hiding it in the fabric of her jacket and Aubrey feels an overwhelming, red-hot urge to burn everything that has ever hurt Dani to ash. And everything that _might_ ever hurt her with it.

She sits very still for a moment, her eyes staring into nothing and her mind unable to pick a next course of action.

“Aubrey?”

Aubrey blinks herself back into focus. “Yeah?”

“Would it be okay if I take my ring off for a while?”

Everyone agreed that none of the Sylphs should show their true form anymore, not even when they are alone. Barclay doesn’t think it’s safe. Duck agrees with him. But if that’s what Dani wants right now…

“Sure, just give me a sec.”

Aubrey gets up again, moving quickly to get through the reluctance to leave Dani’s side, and puts the front door on the latch. The curtains are closed, so that’s alright. She returns to the couch, where Dani’s sitting up now, her hair an endearing mess.

“Alright, go for it,” she says, sitting back down.

Dani reaches for her ring, pale nails hooking around it for a moment before she pulls it off. With a blink the grey of her eyes darkens to a deep orange and a host of minute little changes ripples through her appearance.

Aubrey looks at her, silently, and then Dani smiles. Again. It’s still a tired smile, muddled with sadness, but a smile all the same.

“You always look at me like that,” Dani murmurs, just a hint of fangs glinting between her lips. “Never any other way.”

“What way?” Aubrey asks quietly, but Dani is looking down at the ring she’s turning between her fingers.

“Sometimes it feels like there’s two of me now.”

Aubrey doesn’t know if she can ask what exactly that means. The feeling that every single word out of her mouth can make or break something right now is paralysing. Like even a second’s inattention will fuck _everything_ up. Fuck it up even further.

She has to do something though. Aubrey opens her mouth. “Dani, I—”

“I know.” Dani’s shoulders sag, but she doesn’t turn away or draw back. She slumps sideways, letting herself slip on the cushions of the couch, and curling up on her side, with her head in Aubrey’s lap.

Aubrey’s hands over for half a second before coming to rest on Dani’s shoulder and near the top of her head. Aubrey smooths some of the frizz out of her hair and Dani’s shoulders move, shaking oddly for just a moment before relaxing.

Aubrey breathes slowly, chewing on the inside of her cheek, and listens to the sounds circling around them.

Moira’s rendition of Sonata No. 17, abrupt breaking in the parking lot, vague noises through the wall that in Aubrey’s mind have to be Minerva’s raised voice and Duck’s more mute replies, the distant hum of Barclay vacuuming Mrs. Pearson’s apartment. And further away than that birds, traffic, all the sounds of Kepler.

“Hey, Dani-” Aubrey’s fingers dig into the softness of Dani’s arm just a bit. “I’m not going _anywhere_.”

Dani’s weight shifts and before Aubrey can retract her hand, Dani reaches out and grabs it with her own. Her eyes are wet, but in the moment that Aubrey’s eyes meet hers, gazing up through strands of loose hair from where she has tipped her head into the touch of Aubrey’s other hand, she doesn’t look sad.

“I know,” she whispers.

So Aubrey swallows whatever incoherent promises she still had halfway stuck in her throat, laces their fingers together, and nods.


	3. Save your damn self

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The canon first kiss~
> 
> Takes place during Episode 32, meaning I lifted all except the very first and last dialogue verbatim from there. Dani's POV.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wrote this before the last episode came out but...it still fits.

The back room of the Cryptonomica is as private a place as this building has to offer, which is why it has been temporarily upgraded to channelling chamber. Dani knows enough about magic rituals to know that it is hardly up to scratch compared to the places where magic like this usually gets conducted, but Jeanelle knows how to make do. The only reason Dani is here is because of personal curiosity, really. Because she was supposed to study this stuff. To learn some of the secrets of Sylvane’s power. That was the plan anyway. Before— well, before everything.

It’s a long ritual though and by now Dani is watching Jeanelle and her students work in absentminded silence. They are trying to bring enough power together to build a ward, to weave protection around the Cryptonomica. To keep everyone within it safe.

Dani blinks, slowly, her eyes unfocussing until they don’t really see anything anymore. That’s what they’re trying to save. Everyone. Everything. It’s a very tall order.

A little while ago Dani realised she can no longer remember a time when Amnesty lodge and the people in and around it didn’t feel like Everything. She watches the nervous look in the eyes of one of Jeanelle’s students and wonders if she would have been like that. She can’t imagine it anymore. Her old life. Sylvane. Even her family. It all seems so far away. Like even if she could go back – like she might be able to soon, like this whole room full of people far more powerful and clever than she is hoping they will – it would no longer be there waiting for her. She knows there was a time she didn’t feel this way. Logically she _knows_ , but— she doesn’t remember the feeling.

She does remember a time without Aubrey. It’s only been a year after all. It would be strange not to remember. Very strange. Foolish, even. It’s already getting harder though. She doesn’t _like_ remembering the time without Aubrey. And Aubrey is just, there. First she was sneaking through the hallways of Amnesty lodge at one in the morning, trying not to be seen after raiding the kitchen. Then she was in the lobby, asking a million different questions and offering playtime with her rabbit by way of thanks for the answers. And then she was coming on walks in the woods, sitting on the edge of the hot spring dipping her feet, knocking on her door late at night with stolen snacks… Promising her everything would be okay, asking to be let in while Dani didn’t have the energy to get up from the couch.

Two months. It’s been two months. And there’s no more time for hiding under blankets.

Dani feels a sudden surge of power tingle on her skin and there’s a silent, but noticeable sigh of relief from the students as the spell locks in place. Instead of looking at Jeannelle for further instructions, however, most of them glance towards the door.

Aubrey is lingering in the doorway, her naturally tan skin unusually pale around her face.

“Good work everyone,” Jeanelle says composedly. “You may be excused.”

Aubrey steps inside as the students file out, all of them bowing as they go. Several of them try to bow at Aubrey as well as Jeanelle in the same movement, and it takes all of two seconds for Aubrey’s face to be an absolute grimace of discomfort.

“Don’t do that!” she protests. “I—eh, euh, weird. Don’t— _stop_ , you—”

Dani bows her head to hide a smile. Aubrey is making a series of suffering noises that really can no longer be called coherent communication.

“I suppose it’s weird seeing my other students acting so formal, given the tone of our relationship,” Jeanelle says smilingly.

“Yeah, it’s w—it also seems like kind of culty?” Aubrey wrinkling her nose suspiciously, glancing around to the last of the leaving students. “Like kinda like illuminaty? I just— Mmmm…”

Dani moves as slowly as she can, following the others via the least efficient path possible. She’s not sure how much time there still is, before Aubrey…before the Pine Guard leaves. Maybe, if she could just talk to Aubrey before she left, they could figure out whether—

“Hey Jeanelle, can I have like five minutes with Dani?”

There is a literal tug in her chest that makes her hold still. Dani glances back, just in time to see Jeanelle smile at her. She looks back at Aubrey and nods.

“I have some preparations to attend to,” she says lightly.

Aubrey looks relieved and Dani sees her eyes dart in her direction for a moment, before she looks at Jeanelle again, who bows with as much formality as she possibly can.

“ _Jeanelle_.”

Jeanelle’s laughter rings out even as she shuts the door behind her and Dani is grateful for the sudden release of tension.

“So,” she says, waiting for Aubrey be done suffering and look at her again. “Does this mean you’re kind of a, you know, teacher’s pet? You get special privileges with Jeanelle, what’s the situation?”

Aubrey tugs on her jacket, huffing a little at the implication. “I think this is very much like a kinda Stand and Deliver thing?” she says. “Where I— I mean I’ve never seen it, but I think I’m like the bad apple who the teacher sees potential in, kinda thing? That’s more _my_ read on the situation.”

Dani considers pointing out it’s hard to use a story that neither of them know as a comparison, but honestly, she’d rather listen to Aubrey’s rambling a little longer. Aubrey is waving her hands around, gesturing at unseen reference points.

“Um, you know, kind of the lovable ragamuffin, that kinda deal. I think that’s what’s up.”

Ragamuffin. Dani doesn’t try to hide her smile this time. “Yeah I think that plays,” she says. But now the joke is over and it suddenly feels like they’re pressed for time again. “Um, did you, what—” She hesitates. “Did you need something?”

Aubrey takes in a deep breath. “Yeah so, we have this big mission thing planned, um, back to Sylvane tonight, and I’m probably gonna die, um, so I just wanted to make sure, do you need like money to buy food for Dr. Bonkers?”

Dani looks at her, all those hasty, fragmented sentences knocking around her brain, and she suddenly wants nothing more than to just grab Aubrey by the shoulders and tell _her_ that it’s going to be okay for once. Because Aubrey is talking too fast, and her eyes are too frantic behind her foremost lock of curls.

“I don’t know, do you have a job?” she keeps going. “Like, we’ve never talked about this before, how do you have money?”

“Well—” This is not the question she wants to answer, but come to think of it. “That’s a good question now. Um, Mama kinda took care of that stuff for us, with her uh artwork that she would commission from time to time and, you know, the meagre amounts of money she would make from guests staying at Amnesty Lodge.”

It shouldn’t be this hard to just talk. But it is. At least with Aubrey looking at her like she is right now. Dani can almost feel the worry and uncertainty radiate off of her. She looks down at her shoes, bought with Mama’s money, she doesn’t even remember when.

“Um,” she mutters. “But yeah, that’s a pretty good question, Aubrey, and honestly, um, I don’t think you’re gonna die—”

She’s not. She can’t. Dani can hear Aubrey start to protest, but without her eyes fixed on her face it is easier to keep going.

“I— I have to think that were gonna pull this off, but, and I know this is selfish, but like, what I can’t stop thinking about is what happens next.” _No one_ talks about what comes next. Dani looks up, straight into Aubrey’s eyes, and fights to keep her voice steady. “If we succeed and you all save Sylvane, then, we can all go home, right?”

Aubrey looks about as confident as she just sounded. Dani swallows.

“…yes,” Aubrey says uncertainly. “Honestly, I haven’t thought that far ahead? Because I’m, eh – as I have just said – expecting to die. Umm, we’ll see!”

It _hurts_. Dani doesn’t even know where or how, but, hearing anything other than optimism and comfort coming out of Aubrey’s mouth _hurts_.

“I mean, here, listen, yeah? Sure.” Aubrey’s shoulders sag a little. “That’s as good a plan as any, I suppose.”

No, _no it isn’t_. It _should_ be. Except it isn’t. “But I don’t- I don’t—” Dani has no idea what she can say to make this better. How she can ask Aubrey what she wants to ask. “That place hasn’t been my home for a long time, Aubrey, I don’t know—” Dani swallows. She has missed home for so long, and then when she nearly stopped missing it, she felt guilty. But now Aubrey’s here and everything’s just _different_. “I don’t know what that word means anymore,” she mutters. “As cliché as that sounds.”

Aubrey opens her mouth. “I— do you want to move in together?”

Something in Dani’s stomach jolts and turns over.

“Cause we could probably figure that out—” Aubrey is babbling again, but different this time, her hands are still fidgeting but her eyes are no longer darting around. There’s red flooding to her cheeks. “I don’t know if now is the time to have that discussion.” The expression in her eyes is only one spark removed from eager, only one shade away from pleading. “But we could probably…work that out.”

The joy struggling in her ribcage is stronger than any of her other feelings and Dani doesn’t fight it. “I think now is maybe the perfect time to have that discussion, Aubrey,” she says, her voice wavering with something that is almost laughter, but not quite. “I n— I- I need to have something to get me through what we’re about to do, and I think you do too.”

Aubrey’s eyes are large, fixed on her in uncharacteristic silence, and as Dani meets her gaze she feels it again. It’s Aubrey. It’s Aubrey she’d miss. Aubrey she wants.

“Until today, I didn’t know what side of the gate I wanted to land on.” Dani doesn’t look away now, this time Aubrey’s eyes help, and she picks up speed as she talks. This isn’t something she could ever have planned to say. It’s just something that needs saying. “And, I’ve been thinking about it and thinking about it and being stressed about it, which, like, honestly, yeah, Aubrey I’m counting my chickens a little bit, we have a planet-sized malevolent force to whip first, but, I…have…realized, that…I feel…I feel like I am home when I’m around _you_ , Aubrey, and I don’t mean that in a sentimental way, I literally mean it. You…feel like home. So—”

“That’s nice!” The tone of Aubrey’s voice is shifting again, to the wrong kind of sincerity. “That is a— hey, Dani?” she says, meeting her eye again after a quick glance away. “That’s a very nice thing to say.”

Dani looks back at her. No, not this time. They have been here, right at this moment, at least three times before. And it never lasts. One of them always laughs it away. Not this time. There simply isn’t time anymore. Dani steps closer and Aubrey doesn’t draw back.

“I mean it,” she says. “Wherever you land, that’s where I’m landing too.”

There’s a single second of silence in which Dani can see her own feelings reflected in Aubrey’s eyes, bright and orange and glorious, and then Aubrey let’s out an exasperated sigh.

“Okay, well now I have to live! Okay? I was ju- ugh, now I have to make plan—I still haven’t done my taxes.”

Dani breathes out a breath of silent laughter.

“You know what I mean?” Aubrey presses, her head tipping to the side to force her to look at her. “Cause I was expecting to die in Sylvane, now I’ve gotta do my taxes, and I’ve got to li— _ugh_.”

There’s only one step between them now and Dani takes it. Her hand finds a fold of Aubrey’s jacket and as soon as the last sounds of comical protest die on Aubrey’s lips Dani presses them with her own. And Aubrey – warm, lovely, preposterous, _wonderful_ Aubrey – kisses her back.

Time doesn’t stop, it just stutters for a moment before Dani tilts her head back again and opens her eyes to smile at Aubrey. She gets a begrudgingly helpless smile in return.

“Okay _fine_ , I will live,” Aubrey says and Dani can feel her smile trembling on her lips. Aubrey’s right hand has found her left and she’s squeezing her fingers. “Then we’ll go to Ikea, and we’ll get some new furniture, and we’ll move in—” She blinks. “I don’t know, w- can w-, can you take Ikea furniture to Sylvane?”

Dani laughs. There are tears prickling at the corners of her eyes and she’s so happy she doesn’t quite know how to fight them back. “I don’t really know what the customs process is between planets,” she says. She squeezes Aubrey’s hand back, Aubrey’s fingers warm compared to her own, like they always are. “I wish,” she mutters. “I wish I could go with you out there, but-”

“But then who would take care of Doctor Harris Bonkers?” Aubrey’s expression is a strange mix of nervous concern and wild joy that’s being kept on at least six different leashes.

“Yeah, and, also Kirby and the rest of the knuckleheads around here,” she smiles shakily.

Aubrey gives an odd little waggle with her head, side to side, like a shrug without shoulders. “Sure, but I mean, priorities.”

Dani blows out a laughing breath. “Things are gonna get pretty dangerous here and I think the Cryptonomica defence force is gonna need all the help it can get, because…” Because she has a debt. “Saving this place, it seems like the least I could do for— for him.”

Aubrey’s expression clouds over a little and Dani feels a pang. They don’t talk about Ned. Not really. It seems like no one talks about Ned. And odd as it seems, Dani doesn’t feel like he’s hers to bring up. She wasn’t his friend like Aubrey and Duck were, didn’t know him like Barclay did. She owes him her life, him and Barclay, but the truth is. She hardly knows what to miss in him. And that feels more unforgivable than anything.

Aubrey casts down her eyes for a moment. “…yeah, I— He would appreciate hearing that.”

Her voice is soft, but a moment later Dani feels both her hands caught in Aubrey’s grasp and suddenly she looks up again, speaking with a quiet sort of urgency she has hardly ever heard from her before.

“And I will also tell you what he would tell you: when it comes down to it, save yourself.”

Dani opens her mouth to protest, she can’t help it, but Aubrey hastily interrupts her before she’s even begun.

“Just, do everything you can to protect everyone else! Yes, absolutely! _But_ , save yourself.” Her eyes are fixed on her nearly demandingly. “For _two_ reasons. One, cause Ned knows how sad I would be if anything happened to you. And two, cause Ned died saving you, and he would not want that to go to waste, so like… protect the Cryptonomica for- yeah, yeah yeah, absolutely, Ned would appreciate that, but also—” Her voice is shaking now and Dani isn’t sure she has heard Aubrey say Ned’s name even once the past month. “—keep your damn self alive. Cause I’m sure Ned would appreciate that too.”

Dani bites her lip, because the tears she feels now she doesn’t want to cry. She squeezes Aubrey’s hands, hoping that that is enough of a wordless promise to be understood.

Aubrey’s eyes are dry, too full of double meanings for tears. “And while you’re at it,” she adds, her voice resolutely turning back towards her normal tone. “Protect Doctor Harris Bonkers.”

Smiling instead of crying is so easy around Aubrey. Nine times out of ten it makes up for how hard talking is. Dani pulls on Aubrey’s hands and lets herself tip forward, letting go to wrap both her arms around Aubrey’s neck in a short, tight hug. Just for a moment she hides her face against Aubrey’s jacket and inhales the faint smell of sweet hair product mixed with the sharper smell of recently extinguished fire. Then she lets go and turns towards the door.

“Right back at ya.” That’s all she can manage right now.

Aubrey trails after her, close enough to feel her still. “Protect Doctor Harris Bonkers?”

“No.” Dani glances back at her. After all this is over, she promises herself, she will find a way to pay Aubrey back for every time she’s wilfully misunderstood her. Possibly a way involving more kisses. “The other thing.”

“Oh right, protect myself.” A grin flashes across her face. “Got it.”

Good. Dani extends her hand and as if it’s nothing, Aubrey laces her fingers through hers. They close the door to the back room behind them with a soft, inobtrusive click. It doesn’t sound final at all.

Dani takes in a slow breath. “You said you weren’t going anywhere, so you better come back.”

“…Dani, I—”

“Cause I’ve never been to Ikea and I bet I’ll get lost.”

Aubrey’s face is all grateful affection. “Yeah, it’s _pretty_ overwhelming the first time,” she says gravely. “You definitely shouldn’t go alone.”

“Exactly.” No going alone. No more being without a home.

“Good thing I’m not going anywhere then.”

Yes. Good thing she isn’t.

Dani doesn’t let go of Aubrey’s hand when they walk out of the Cryptonomica, but Kirby is the only one that visibly looks at them twice. She doesn’t mind that he does. Because just for one moment, Dani doesn’t mind anything.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm going to try and go back and fill in some fluffy early relationship stuff. I have a terrible Craving for fluff.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	4. You were kissing a god!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during Episode 35.
> 
> (I felt so bad for poor bewildered Dani throughout the whole of this.)

It only takes a moment after Agent Stern runs screaming through the gate for Dani to hear the chirping of the birds. Bright, golden daylight is lighting up the sky and there are _birds_ flying overhead.

With shaking legs Dani plants her feet on her old home soil and it feels more real, more purely _Sylvain_ , than it did even in her best memories. For a second breathing seems an impossible, heart-swelling task, and then she hears her voice.

Stern is talking, Mama is talking, but there – standing in a bed of bright, glorious flowers – is Aubrey.

She has started running before her head has even had time to catch up with her feet. The sounds and smells of Sylvain are wrapping more firmly around her with every step, but all she sees is the brilliant light in Aubrey’s eyes the moment her gaze meets hers.

Aubrey spreads her arms just in time to prevent a full-blown crash, but Dani doesn’t _quite_ manage to slow herself down enough. For a second everything is flying hair and tripping feet and then they both land among the flowers in a thorough tangle of limbs.

“Oof!” Aubrey laughs.

“Sorry!” Dani gasps, breathless with what she’s pretty sure is more joy and relief than she has _ever_ felt before. She scrambles to her feet again, catching Aubrey by the arms to pull her up. “So I have a super weird story to tell you… that you are NOT going to believe.”

Aubrey’s face is lit up like a star. “Oh, me too! Oh man.”

 **“** No-- no trust me,” Dani laughs, her hands still grasping Aubrey’s arms. She _never_ wants to let go of her. “Mine’s gonna blow your mind.

“Oh, really? Because like… mine too!”

Dani laughs. Always. Always Aubrey. “No, _seriously_.”

“You wanna say it on three?” Aubrey says, eyebrows raising in self-assured challenge. “We’ll say it on three.”

Dani wishes she had dared to bring Dr. Bonkers with her, she really does. “Okay…”

Aubrey is grinning so wide, far too wide, Dani can feel it pulling at the corners of her own mouth. They count, in unison, and as soon as they reach three Dani busts forth:

“Doctor Harris Bonkers walks and—”

“I had Sylvain living inside of me and then she—”

Dani can feel her thoughts scramble into wordless static. …what?

Aubrey’s mouth shuts abruptly. “Wait, what did you say?”

Sylvain. Sylvain _living inside her_. “…what did _you_ say?”

Aubrey blinks. “I had Sylvain living inside me— What about Doctor Harris Bonkers?”

The static screeches and the fabric of Aubrey’s jacket slips through Dani’s fingers. “He like…walks on two legs and stuff now,” she murmurs, staring at Aubrey in complete bewilderment. She swallows. “You had Sylvain _inside_ of you?”

The faint look of thoughtful fascination that had just dawned on Aubrey’s face gives way to one of her bright flashes of wild energy and suddenly there are a lot of words coming very fast.

“Yeah! Like apparently this whole fucking time, like since I was born. Sylvain, the goddess of… you know, _your planet_ , was like… inside _this_ one—” She jabs two thumbs towards her chest with far too casual triumph. “—and then, we went downstairs and jumped down a pit and I talked to Sylvain, she popped out. Stopped the Quell, and then like we hugged, what’s up, I hugged your god and she was like— we totally chilled for a bit. And then we came back here and I saved your planet.” She runs a hand through her hair, standing her red curls up on end and rubbing at the back of her neck with a hint of embarrassment that suddenly seems _wholly_ misplaced. “Um, but I’m not gonna play down your thing, because I would like to hear about my bunny… that is apparently, like, now the White Rabbit from Alice in Wonderland.”

The static has died down, but it’s been replaced by something worse. Something muffled and terribly anxious. There is nothing different about Aubrey. She doesn’t look different. Doesn’t _feel_ different. But she’s… “So can I like… can I still like hang out with you?”

Aubrey’s eyes widen in startled surprise. “Oh absolutely!” she says hastily, grabbing her hands. “But do you know, hey, I want you to know, because now we’ve got kind of a timeshare thing going on.”

Dani laughs, more of relief than amusement. Amusement would require an actual understanding of the situation and right now she still feels at a complete, bewildering loss. Aubrey is grinning again and while that does make feel _part_ of her immediately feel better, it’s also severely confusing. She just _literally_ told her that she had – has?? – the actual life of the planet inside of her and now she’s—

“But I want you to know that when we kissed?” Aubrey grin is nearly too full of delighted triumph to fit it all into her face. “ _You were kissing a godddd_. What’s up!”

For a moment the world wobbles a little.

“I know!” Aubrey cries and Dani feels a pair of strong arms securely around her waist.

That is undeniably better, but does not negate the fact that she is _sorely_ in need of some processing time. “Alright, can we like— can we slow it down?”

“Yeah! I know!” Aubrey gleefully agrees, without absolutely zero slowing down going on anywhere around her person. “Uh what’s _that_ like, right.” Her wide, sparkling eyes are almost all Dani can see, that’s how close she is leaning in. “You were kissing a _god!”_

Aubrey’s triumphant cackle of laughter is breaking through the anxious whirring of Dani’s mind. This doesn’t feel like any kind of divinity. This feels like pure, unadulterated Aubrey Little.

“And every time I ate burritos?” she continues. “A _god_ was eating burritos!”

Dani takes a deep breath. “Well, a _god_ is going to get herself scolded if she doesn’t kiss her girlfriend hello.”

“I mean, I didn’t want to _assume_ ,” Aubrey grins. She leans into her, arms pulling her closer, but then she stops. “Um – just to be clear and stuff – you _were_ kissing a god, but you are dating _me_ , right?”

There is that burst of exasperated fondness warming her up inside. “ _Aubrey._ ”

“Oh, right!”

For one glorious moment soft lips press warm against her cheek.

And then there is screaming, Duck and Minerva sprinting past, and Dani has to let go of Aubrey for the second time in the most twisted excuse for a day she has ever lived through.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I still love these girls very very much, but my drive for writing this is fading, so I will probably write one more piece about them fixing Sylvane and leave them be with their happiness.
> 
> Thanks for reading!


	5. You're so fucking cool

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Takes place during episode 36, aka The Finale~

Sylvain is _healing_. In every sense of the word, Dani realises – once again – with a smile. Her heart is almost full enough to burst as she watches Aubrey run, leap, and then stumble down a gently rolling hill. Every single time her feet pound onto the earth a burst of green grass and flowers on the point of blooming shoot up from the ground all around her. The barren field they just passed through is now a lush meadow and Janelle and Alexandra still have clumps of dirt in their hair from the last tree that suddenly hoisted itself into existence.

“Dani!” Aubrey yells, scrambling to her feet at the foot of another slope. “Dani watch this!” She throws her arms back, slightly impeded by her backpack and sprints up the hill, singing at the top of her lungs:

“The hills are _alive!_ With the _sound of music!_ ”

In a wave of raw, joyful magic that Dani can feel reverberating in her bones green grass ripples up and down the hill and a host of yellow flowers turn their newly bloomed faces to the sun.

Aubrey lets out a whoop of triumph and lets herself topple over, almost disappearing into a particularly high patch of grass.

Dani climbs the slope towards her, laughing as she goes. They’re putting the planet back together again. They are breathing _life_ back into the ravaged wastelands of her home and Aubrey is…Aubrey is brilliant.

By the time she manages to reach her, herbs have started to sprout in between the grass around Aubrey and the flowers are displaying a variety of colours.

“Hi there,” Dani grins, leaning over her so her shadow falls on Aubrey’s face.

“Did we lose Janelle and Xandra again?” she asks, smiling crookedly.

“No,” Dani smiles back. “I think they just prefer to stay out of the blast radius.”

Aubrey blows out a noisy breath, almost a raspberry, and sits up. “What about Dr. Harris Bonkers?”

There’s a tell-tale sound somewhere off in the wavy grass that to Dani sounds only like a garbled “pfft pfft pftt”, but to Aubrey somehow warrants an indignant huff and a: “Well maybe I’m resting!”

Dr. Harris Bonkers emerges from behind a clump of flowers, getting up on his hind legs and sharing another one of his unintelligible thoughts.

“I did _not_ ,” Aubrey protests, scrambling back to her feet and Dani smilingly helps to steady her just because she wants to.

“What did he say?” she asks and Dr. Harris Bonkers smirks at her.

“Nothing,” Aubrey says hastily, with a warning glance downwards. “I’ve just let him watch too much Disney.”

He replies with something that sounds rude even to Dani’s ears.

Aubrey wrinkles her nose. “Or not _enough_ Disney.”

They wander back down the slope again in a little group of three, vaguely in the direction of where Janelle and Alexandra seem to be investigating the ruin of some sort of house.

Aubrey is still waving her hands left and right, flinging flowers everywhere she points and Dani lets her mind wander for a moment. She turns around, walking backwards to be able to meet Aubrey’s gaze as they go. Out here is not the only place that needs healing.

“So, uh, I had a thought today. We’re probably gonna have to name the City of Sylvain something else probably, right?”

The city is bustling again. An astonishing amount of the people who had been overcome by the Quell’s thrall have recovered. But that’s why they’re out here, healing the ravaged countryside. Because right now everyone has to take refuge in the capital. It’s the only place that has survived. The only place they know of anyway.

So the city is not only vibrant and alive again, with the glow of Sylvain once again warming its foundations. It’s alive with _people_ , folks that are glad to be looking up at the sky again and that are ready to take back their home. To start over fresh. But it’s going to be a new Sylvain and it should be a new city.

Aubrey blinks at her. “Uh… why? I mean, I guess?”

Dani shrugs her shoulders. “I mean like, when it was the only habitable place on the planet, it kinda made sense to—”

“Oh, I see.”

“—name it after the planet,” Dani nods as Aubrey catches on. “Now it’s just gonna be confusing.”

“Yeah,” Aubrey frowns. like, we couldn’t -- we wouldn’t wanna live in a city that was just called like _Earth_ , on Earth.”

“Yeah.” Dani turns around, looking into the direction where she knows the city must be. She has always had a good sense of direction.

“Yeah, I guess,” Aubrey ponders beside her. “It’s not super creative. I get it.”

Dani looks at her. Sometimes when Aubrey looks out across Sylvain the orange of her eyes seems almost as bright as genuine fire. She tries not to bring it up, because Aubrey can get just a big confused by it herself, but it’s still an odd thing. This Aubrey-Sylvain timeshare. “So I don’t know how to have—” she begins. “Like do we form a committee, or do you get to do it?”

Aubrey looks at her in dismay. “ _Whew_. I don’t know that you should give me that power, Dani.” Her expression turns very serious. “Ohhhh. I probably would just name it something dirty like Butt City or something, cause I thought it was funny.”

Dani laughs, because laughing is easy and Aubrey rubs the back of her neck, grinning crookedly.

“Let’s see. Um, you know. What do you think about the City of Chicane?”

Chicane… She does feel pang at the name, but Dani grins all the same. “Yeah, that’s not bad.

For a moment Aubrey smiles one of her shy, earnest half-smiles. “Feel pretty good about that one.

Dani swallows. Yes. Sylvain made whole and the City of Chicane. That’s a future worth making real.

“Hey,” she says, taking in a steading breath and trying for a smile. “I’m kinda hungry.” She brushes Aubrey’s hand with her own. “Can you do the thing?

Aubrey’s face lights up like the sun itself. “Yep!”

She flicks her hands upwards and Dani knows bow her head and close her eyes because a beat later two trees pop out of the ground, growing fast enough for it to be audible like a rushing creak of wood. Dani can feel some stray dirt and grass sliding off her hair and when she opens her eyes there is a laden apple tree standing to Aubrey’s right and an orange tree to her left. For trees that have just been called into existence they seem fairly unbothered to be standing opposite such an unlikely neighbour.

“Hold on—” Dani looks past the orange tree. There’s a third tree standing there, slightly smaller, its branches heavy with dark brown fruits that Dani is sure she has never seen before.

Aubrey makes a sound of pure delight and Dani picks one of the fruits, making sure not to trip over Dr. Harris Bonkers as he scurries out in front of her feet. The fruits smell delicious and…kind of familiar. She bites into it expectantly and gives a surprised squeak. _Pudding_.

“Did you just—” She swallows. “Dang, did you just make a new fruit?”

Aubrey’s face is a picture of glee and justified hubris. “It’s called Pudding Fruit!”

Dani can’t laugh and eat at the same time and she chooses eating. They’ve been eating very well while they’ve been on the road, actually. Aubrey has been keeping them all very healthy. But she _has_ missed desserts. She swallows another mouthful of pudding. She has missed desserts and she _loves_ Aubrey.

Dr. Harris Bonkers, after a careful sniff, avoids the pudding tree and jumps a clean six feet up into the air to grab one of the oranges. As he peels it with his little furry claws, he looks up coaxingly at Aubrey. “ _P_ _fft pfft pftt pft pft pft?"_

Aubrey pulls a face. “No, I can’t make a carrot tree! That’s weird! Carrots grow in the ground—” A spark lights up in her eyes. “I _could_ make a carrot tree. Dani, should I make a carrot tree?”

Dani would answer, but she’s currently struggling to swallow down both the pudding and the love and so she simply can’t right now.

Dr. Harris Bonkers thumps his feet.

“Okay, fine.” Aubrey bends over and touches the ground, retracting her hand just in time for the tiny, three-foot-tall carrot tree that sprouts out of the earth.

Her rabbit makes an eager jump and attacks the new piece of vegetation head on, not bothering to use his still fairly new dextrous paws, but relying on tried and tested rabbit skills.

“Yes,” Aubrey says approvingly. “Go to town, big guy. All yours.”

The affection in her voice as she says it warms Dani up inside. She swallows and slowly takes another bite of her pudding fruit. Fruit that Aubrey made. Aubrey Little. Aubrey Little whom she loves.

Dani stuffs the rest of the fruit into her mouth.

“Aubrey,” Janelle announces her presence, having left Alexandra by the house a little way away. “You know Thacker is going to want to catalogue all this stuff, right? There's- there’s no need to make things harder on him.”

“Well, yes,” Aubrey says and the slight smirk she still has on her lips is doing something to Dani’s stomach she thought she had grown past. “But also… pudding tree! Janelle. Pudding tree.

Janelle looks fond even as she shakes her head. “Okay.”

“Yes, right? I wouldn’t do it like all the time, right? I’m not gonna like make you know like I don’t know… a smartphone tree or something. It’s fine. Listen.” Aubrey waves her hands around. “I don’t know how much longer I’m gonna be able to do this kinda thing, right? So let’s have a little fun with it, right? I think eventually Sylvain’s gonna be like, ‘Hey, cool it with the pudding trees.’ And that’s fine. I get it.”

If Janelle wasn’t here… If it was just her and Aubrey and impossible pudding, maybe she would have told her. Maybe, because as badly as she wants to tell her, just the thought of that heart-exploding word leaving her mouth is making Dani a little dizzy. Which is probably stupid. They saved the world. They changed Earth for Sylvain. _She kissed a god_.

But still.

Janelle seems to be having her own problems right now, because she’s currently spitting out the bite she took from a rather lumpy looking pudding fruit while Aubrey shuffles her feet apologetically. Dani wipes her hand on her jeans, lingering just a little longer before joining them again, just to make sure her heartbeat doesn’t start going crazy again.

“I know there’s no way we’re gonna put this world back together the exact way it was,” she hears Janelle sigh. “And I think that’s something we all have to just accept. But you are figuratively and literally planting a seed that is going to grow for eons in ways that we will never be able to predict and who’s to say that some important event doesn’t start right here with a new pudding fruit?”

“By the way,” Aubrey grins. “I’m calling this Wonka Forest. That’s funny, right? Isn’t that great?”

And there goes her heart again.

“It’s funny. The whimsy is wonderful, I love the whimsy,” Janelle replies, sounding somewhat unbalanced. “You know me, I’m down to clown, Aubrey. I’m just saying… for all of my considerable wisdom, I don’t know how we know when we’re making the right decisions.”

Dani can still taste the pudding and she can still feel her heartbeat, but she can also feel the weight of Janelle’s words. Because she’s right. Everyone has made a lot of mistakes leading up to this moment. And they’ve only just about started getting it right. That’s what it feels like sometimes anyway. Except. Dani doesn’t know exactly what it is, but this, here, now, this _feels_ right. And if she can’t depend on that, then—

Aubrey cuts off her thoughts with the distinctive, nearly babbling sentences of her genuine sincerity.

“I— right now, I have maybe the most burden of choice any person has ever had, right? I have the power of creation. I can make any kind of tree. And if start thinking about what the right one to do is, I’m not gonna do anything. Because I don’t know what the right one is.”

Dani stands and watches her, and listens. Everything stills under Aubrey’s words. Everything except her feelings.

“So I just have to do the next thing,” Aubrey continues. “And the next thing and the next thing. And I think— my hope is, is that I act, if I act from a place of love and a place of fun and a place of, you know, making someone smile, that the next thing I do will be the right thing.”

Her feet have carried her to Aubrey’s side without her fully realising it and Dani, doing her level best to pour every last thing she feels into single movement, presses a kiss to her cheek. Her breath comes out uneven, but her voice doesn’t and she means every word.

“You’re so fucking cool.”

The single light of soft surprise in Aubrey’s eyes immediately flares up to another spark of triumph. “Right? I know, right?”

Aubrey is beaming and Janelle is smiling and Dani is just about ready to start laughing at nothing in particular when Alexandra walks over and raises her hand.

“Uh, hey, everyone? I need some help over here…”

\---

One cheese bush and some much needed comforting conversations with mice folk later, all of them are sitting on a newly sprouted patch of moss, near the edge of what must once have been a grand forest.

Alexanda is letting the two mice take turns swinging in her shawl and Janelle is writing something down, probably for Thacker.

Aubrey is looking up at the trees though. They are all dead. Either charred or fossilised where they stood, some of them split or nothing more than stumps. Aubrey’s eyes are large and nearly solemn.

Dani silently scoots forward a bit, nudging against her knee and putting her hand over Aubrey’s.

She squeezes her hand in response, glancing between her and the trees. “Do you think the Amazon has trees that big?” She gets to her feet and Dani follows suit. “They’re probably bigger, right? Yeah, it’s the Amazon.”

She bites her lip and Dani can tell she’s thinking about Duck. They all miss them. But Thacker is working on opening the connection between Earth and Sylvain again. He thinks with Minerva on the other side, he can make it work.

“We’re going to see them again, Aubrey,” she says as they walk up to the first tree. It towers high above them, dark and sombre against the once again blue sky.

Aubrey nods and it’s not doubtful, it’s confident. “We will. And hey, Dani? We’re gonna see Amnesty lodge again, too.”

Dani smiles. “I do miss the old place.”

Aubrey gives her a sideways glance. “I miss the hot springs.”

“Yeah,” Dani laughs. “Me too.” She wraps her arms around Aubrey’s waist, leaning back far enough to be nearly leaning against the ancient tree. “But you know what? I’m no longer homesick.”

She lets Aubrey get a single fire-eyed grin in before kissing her and when she pulls away again Aubrey hands have found the folds of Dani’s knitted sweater and she’s leaning back against the tree with a sunshine look spread all over her face.

Such sunshine.

Dani swallows. “Hey Aubrey, you know something else?”

One corner of Aubrey’s mouth quirks up expectantly. “What?”

Who knew. You can bring an entire forest back to life with just three little words.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope that left you with the same fuzzy feelings writing this gave me <3
> 
> Thank you for reading~


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